Online weight management consultations in General Santos

Checking products and reporting problems from General Santos

The regional health regulators for SOCCSKSARGEN sit in Koronadal City, not in General Santos. If you want to report a medicine or ask the regulator a question, these are the offices on record:

FDA Philippines asks the public to search its Verification Portal at verification.fda.gov.ph. It also asks the public to send reports of suspected unregistered or counterfeit products to ereport@fda.gov.ph or through e-Sumbong. Read more in how to spot fake GLP-1 pens and are peptides legal in the Philippines.

Storing medicines in General Santos heat

PAGASA's General Santos, South Cotabato station has climate normals for 1991 to 2020. They show an average daily maximum of 32.7 °C over the year and 34.3 °C in April.

Set against that, the Philippine package inserts specify:

• Ozempic and Wegovy FlexTouch pens: refrigerator at 2 to 8 °C before first use. After first use, up to 6 weeks, below 30 °C or in a refrigerator.
• Mounjaro KwikPen: refrigerator at 2 to 8 °C before first use. After first use, "Store unrefrigerated at room temperature below 30 ºC," and discard 30 days after first use.

None may be frozen. Our guide to storing GLP-1 pens has the full label text.

General Santos and SOCCSKSARGEN in numbers

PSA's 2024 census counted 722,059 people in the City of General Santos, spread over 26 barangays. Almost all of them, 98.9%, live in urban barangays. Calumpang is the most populous barangay, with 90,480 people.

DOST-FNRI has also published figures for the city itself. The 2021 Expanded National Nutrition Survey found high fasting blood sugar in 8.9% of the city's adults. That is a different survey round from the 2023 regional survey below, so the two should not be compared directly.

For the region, the 2023 National Nutrition Survey (adults aged 20 to 59) reported:

• Overweight or obesity in SOCCSKSARGEN: 53.4%, below the national 57.1%.
• High fasting blood glucose in SOCCSKSARGEN: 6.3%, below the national 7.5%.

High fasting blood glucose means a single fasting test at or above 126. It is not a diabetes diagnosis. The health facts table on this page lists every figure with its source.

Weight management care for people in General Santos

General Santos patients can use Obra, a telehealth platform that serves every Philippine city.

Obra is not a pharmacy. A licensed doctor reviews your free assessment. If the doctor prescribes it, Obra then connects you with a pharmacy offering compounded semaglutide or compounded tirzepatide, prepared by a licensed pharmacist. Obra itself does not prescribe or dispense medicines.

Compounded tirzepatide is not the same product as Mounjaro or Zepbound, and compounded semaglutide is not the same product as Ozempic, Wegovy or Rybelsus. Learn what each medicine is on our tirzepatide and semaglutide pages.

The legal route to a prescription

Dispensing rules appear in Section 33 of RA 10918, the Philippine Pharmacy Act: "Prescription medicines may be dispensed only by a duly registered and licensed pharmacist and only with a valid prescription of a physician, dentist, or veterinarian."

For Mounjaro, Ozempic and other branded medicines, a doctor may issue an e-prescription if you qualify. Obra does not procure or supply them. The pharmacy of your choice fills the prescription, and you pay that pharmacy for the medicine.